A set of photos, showing Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and a man holding two severed heads, are being shared together shortly after the conclusion of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on 29 September.
The claim: Those sharing this set of photos have claimed that both photos show Al-Sharaa, who purportedly used to a head a delisted terrorist organisation in the past, now participating at the UNGA.
"Yesterday's terrorist is tomorrow's leader of UN," one user wrote, insinuating that Al-Sharaa was able to participate at the UNGA due to "US backing."
How do we know?: A reverse image search on the first photo led us to Al-Sharaa's photo on the official Instagram account of the President of the Syrian Arab Republic, where it was shared on 23 September.
This confirms that the photo is authentic and unaltered.
What about the other one?: A reverse image search on the second photo in the claim led us to credible news reports dating back to 2014.
These reports, such as this one by Cable News Network (CNN), carried the same censored version of the image, identifying the man as one Mohammed Elomar, a suspected Australian militant who was linked to ISIS.
Another report by The Guardian, too, identified the person in this photograph as Mohammed Elomar.
A 2015 report by the BBC noted that Elomar had been killed in a targeted drone strike.
Conclusion: The man holding two severed heads does not show Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, but shows Mohammed Elomar, a terrorist who was killed in 2015.
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